Handgun/Carbine Combo: 6 pistol caliber combo advantages

Handgun rifle combos in the same caliber aren’t anything new. They’ve been around for many years. Back in the wild west cowboys and frontiersmen saw the logistic advantage of having both their guns in the same caliber. Lets go through some of the advantages of this set up.

The advantages are valid for the Winchester 94 and Manurhin MR73 pictured above, but are also valid for other combos such as Glock 9mm and Keltec sub2000, Beretta Storm carbine and handgun, or other pistol caliber subguns such as H&KMP5. Keltec Sub2000 can use the same magazines as your Glock pistol, making it particularly handy.

1)Obvious enough, logistics. You buy and stock up on just one caliber. Whatever ammo you have with you can be used on either gun, something you wouldn’t be able to do if you had different ammo for each one. If you end up using either gun more than the other, either way your grand total supply of ammo can be run through both indistinctively.

2) Weight. Pistol caliber ammo is usually smaller and more compact than rifle ammo.

Pistol caliber firearms themselves are usually more lightweight and compact than their rifle caliber counterparts.

3)Cost of ammo. Pistol ammo is usually affordable and easy to come by. Granted some surplus rifle ammo can be dirt cheap, but in general handgun ammo is more affordable, especially 9mm.

4)Low recoil. Pistol caliber carbines and sub guns have little recoil. They are easier to handle for small framed people, women or people particularly sensitive to recoil.

5)Accuracy and Power. Some shooters believe that a pistol caliber long arm is just a heavy, bulky handgun. Not so. A long arm with a stock has a third point of contact with the body in the stock (4th is counting cheek weld) this makes accurate long range shots easier and faster.

Some people don’t realize the power advantage in having more barrel to burn the ammunition’s powder. In 9mm the advantage can be an extra 150 to 200 fps. This is considerable more speed and power. In bigger, more powerful calibers the advantage ca be even greater.

6)Supressing. Pistol caliber carbines and sub guns are easily suppressed. They usually have shorter barrels that lend themselves nicely to sound suppressors. A subsonic variation can often be found for most pistol calibers.
FerFAL